DIY Addiction!

EASY but Delicious :-)

2010-02-20T18:12:00.003-05:00

Here's a little bitty mini tutorial for you

Peanut Butter Chocolate Marshmallows

Ingredients:
Marshmallows
Peanut Butter
Mini Chocolate Chips

Most people probably know how to make these its just an idea for a snack when your sitting at home and you want to eat something sweet but don't know what.
The first step it take your marshmallows and dip the top in peanut butter.
Next dip the end that's covered in peanut butter in mini chocolate chips.

Done!

They should look like this when your finished: (Only without the face...)

Oh, one more step that I forgot, eat them!

Thanks for looking

~Courtney

P.S. Like the little marshmallows I made on Paint? Haha =)

Fried Plaintains

2010-02-10T10:09:00.005-05:00

Hello! Well, here in central Pennsylvania, it's still snowing. The record for the most snow was 30.3 inches way back in 1893... It's been broken :-P haha. But being stuck inside with no school, is such a wonderful time to cook.

Anyway, today I'm gonna show you how to make fried plantains. I found this recipe on the internet somewhere, so I can't take credit for it, but I took my own pictures of how I did it and would really like to share it with you because they are sooooo tasty ♥

You start out by putting half an inch of vegetable oil in a pan and bringing it up to 325 degrees, or medium heat.

Peel the plantain. If you don't know how that's done click this link on How To Peel A Plantain.

Next cut it into about inch wide circle pieces.

Then place them in the hot oil and fry them for two minutes on each side. Then take them out and let them cool for about five minutes.

The next step, if you have a plantain press you can use that to press them flat. (Of course, if you have a plantain press you probably already know how to make theses haha). So if you don't you can put the circles in between two layers of plastic wrap and press then flat with the bottom of a cup, the palm of your hand or a meat tenderizer. Don't beat it silly though, just kind of press or tap it so you don't kill it.

(I did mine with the bottom of a cup ^)

The Next step will be to put them back into the oil (At the same heat as before) and let them fry for 4 minutes on each side this time.

After that take them out and put them on a plate with a paper towel on it (to drain off any excess oil). When they are cool enough to eat, salt them and eat them!

They are extremely delicious. The outsides get a little crunch and the inside stay more squishy (not gross squishy though, like the insides of a good french fry). I like to eat them with ketchup but you can dip them in whatever you want or just eat them plain.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment :-)

~Courtney

Snicker Doodles!

2010-02-06T10:47:00.007-05:00

What do you do when there's two feet of snow outside, its cold and you can't leave the house because the roads are so bad?

You bake snicker doodles!!

For those of you who don't know what snicker doodles are, they are reeeeeally delicious cookies that are rolled in cinnamon and sugar before they are baked. They are quite yummy =)

The Recipe

1 Cup of Butter

1 1/2 Cups of sugar

2 Eggs

2 3/4 Cups of Flour

2 Teaspoons of Cream of Tartar

1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

First you mix the butter and sugar together and the add the eggs. Once all those are mixed thoroughly together, you can add the tartar, backing soda an the flour.
If its sticky and/or hard to roll into balls, then you can chill it in the fridge. If its not the you can just start to roll it into balls. The balls should be about the size of a medium strawberry (only round, obviously haha).

Next, you mix together 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon together in a bowl and roll the balls of dough around in it until they are covered:

Once they are rolled place them on a cookie sheet and press them just a little bit so they are slightly flattened on the top:

Bake them at 350 degrees for ten minutes. When they are done put them on a wire cooling rack:

Then eat 'em!

If you have any questions, feel free to comment and ask =)

~Courtney

Dr. Who Scarf

2010-01-23T12:43:00.009-05:00

Well, today I'm going to show you the beginning of my most recent on-going project.

My Dr. Who scarf!

So first I need to tell you that I am a sci-fi lover! I can't get enough of the stuff, call me a nerd if you like (it doesn't bother me because I know I am :-P) but I love it :-) My favorite is stuff from the 50's to the 80's or 90's. New stuff is OK, but vintage is wonderful. I love the tacky monsters who are all made out of rubber and I love the horrible special effects. Well, now that you know I love sci-fi, I'll let you know that Dr. Who is my favorite show. For those of you who don't know what it is... Well it takes to long to describe it so Google it or read here. Well the old ones are my favorite and Tom Baker was my favorite Doctor. During his time as the doctor he always had an excessively long, absolutely wonderful, scarf.

^It looks like this, it goes down and touches the ground on either side. It's magnificent.

I've always wanted one, but you can't buy ones that look just like his, and I really like homemade things. Last week I was watching this ThreadBanger video and there was a man who said he'd seen Dr. Who scarves around the internet. And I immediately thought to Google them. (I have NO idea why I'd never thought to do that before....) And alas and behold, I found this fantastic website: Doctor Who Scarf Site. It's a fantastic website that gives you all the details and an easy how-to on how to make the scarf. Well, of course, I decided I needed to make one. So now you know all about Dr. Who and his fantastic scarf, here is the beginning of mine:

The first of the yarns I've got:

The backside of the first two stripes:

The front side:

And again:

So as you can tell, it's no where near finished, haha, but I have don't have more of the colors of yarn that I need for the next stripes, but I ordered two more colors today and will order the rest next pay day.

Anyway, just thought that would be my thought for the day :-)

Thanks for looking!!

~Courtney

P.S. Notice my font matches the scarf? :-P

Watermelon Cake and Rainbow Cake

2010-01-22T18:22:00.010-05:00

So this past year for my birthday I wanted a reeeally cool cake and I had the exact one I wanted in my head. So I decided to make one myself :-)
It was super easy to make and I loved the way it turned out :-)

You just take-
*Any store bought angel food cake mix (Unless you want to make it yourself)
*Food Coloring
*Heavy Whipping Cream
*Chocolate Chips

First you mix up your angel food cake batter. Then you dump in enough red food coloring until its the color you want it (somewhere close to watermelon color). Next you take two or so smaller handfuls of chocolate chips and mix it into the batter. Then, bake it in two thin round pans.
While the cakes are cooling off you can make the whipped cream.
Store bought whipped cream is good, but homemade whipped cream is the best :-). Take a pint of whipping cream and tablespoon of sugar (you can double or even triple this recipe depending on how much whipped cream you want to end up with, (its one tablespoon of sugar for each pint of cream.) I don't remember exactly how much we used on this cake, but you can always just eat any extras :-P) All you do is whip the two with a hand mixer or a whisk until its as sturdy as you like it and then add in green food coloring. When the cakes are cool all you have to do is ice them and viola! Delicious watermelon cake! :-)

Here's how my cake turned out:

The outside:

The inside:
The chocolate chips look like seed in the pink inside so when you cut into its like a slice of watermelon :-)

The next day we had lots of whipping cream left over and I had really been wanting to try this Rainbow Cake tutorial I found a link to on ThreadBanger. Here are my results (I used lighter food coloring so my colors were more pastel, whereas theirs were brighter):

All the separate bowls of batter:

Once they were all mixed together before they were baked:

The final product from the outside

With a slice out of it:

Close-up:
It was delicious and purdy :-) I just used the a fore mention tutorial on angel food cake and added my own whipped cream icing :-)

*Phew!* Long post haha :-) Thanks for looking! Hope I inspired you to make more cake :-P

~Courtney :-)

Tutorial that I promised months ago....

2010-01-21T18:07:00.007-05:00

Well here's the tutorial I promised oh so long ago. Its just created on paint, but hopefully it will be easy enough to understand :-) Shirt one refers to the picture of the shirt on the left and shirt two refers to the picture of the shirt on the right. If you have any questions at all feel free to comment :-)

Talk to anyone who's out there later :-) Thanks for looking!

Hehe, Oops!

2010-01-21T18:02:00.003-05:00

Well fail at life. I haven't blogged in what, six months? Me and blogging aren't the best of pals. The main reason I don't blog very often is because I say in one post that I am going to have something specific in my next post but when it comes time for my next post then I don't want to or am not able to do it.... Then I feel guilty and don't want to blog. So from now on if I blog I will not be saying what will be coming in the next post.

Hopefully I'll keep on truckin' and keep blogging. We'll see :-)

Halter Tee-Shirt

2009-06-29T16:30:00.007-04:00

So it's been forever since I've blogged anything, mostly because I've been busy going on vacation and summer break starting and visiting family. But I'm back and I'm working on a new tutorial for two tee-shirts into a halter top.

I made one today and thought I'd at least show you what it will look like-

Front

Back

I love the way tee-shirt fabric drapes :)

[I'm wearing a tank top underneath so ignore that part, I didn't make it]

Look back for the tut!

Thanks for reading,

~Courtney

The 3 Most Inspiring Animals

2009-05-20T17:41:00.011-04:00

Today I'm going to share with you the three most inspiring animals. Or at least in my opinion.

1. First off, Octopi, they are so amazing!!!

They are so neatly colored and pretty! You can make so many things resembling them. For example in my last post, OctopusMe, has some pretty amazing octopi themed things. If your interested in learning more about octopi look at this blog- http://www.everythingoctopus.blogspot.com/ A very intriguing blog.

2. Next Elephants.

Elephants are so beautiful! They are so powerful and big. Here's something Elephant-ish for you to gain inspiration from. Are those not the cutest things ever?! And did you know elephants come in a variety of colors?

(if you don't know what movie these^ are from you NEED to watch Dumbo. Or at least the Pink Elephants Song, tis amazing!!) Why not make something with Pink Elephants on it? That would be awesome.

3. Last but not least Giraffes.

Awwwwww!!!!! ^

They are so adorable. And are little kid giraffe costumes the cutest thing?

I think a cute project would be a giraffe head band. You could take a head band and cover it in giraffe fabric, or even just plain brown fabric and attach little brown pom-poms onto springs and put them on top. Cute!

Now for some etsy-giraffe cuteness this little stuffy. How cute is that?

Thanks for looking! Hope you were inspired!!

~Courtney ♥

Awesome Etsy Finds!

2009-05-16T19:36:00.005-04:00

So I've made a list of really cool shops and individual items to look at on Etsy. Just a bunch of my most favorite things.

First off, just searching TBGuild, you can fins things made by ThreadBanger forum members. They are all very talented and make really awesome stuff.

Next I've fallen head over heels in LOVE with MountainGirlClothing's halter tank tops they are so amazing, as soon as I have money I'm going to buy one, they are so adorable!

3rd, I know shameless advertising.... But here is my shop. I make up cycled bags mostly, till I pick up a bit in the business area.

4th ArtbyheatherSupplies has oodles of really cool supplies and neat things to craft and make jewelry with, pus, she has bingo chips!! I love bingo chips! They remind me of those little tiny colorful sunglasses worn in the sixties.

I also fins my self returning again and again to audreyandgrace's shop to look at there beautiful dresses. They are so amazing! One of my favorites is this one, it's got lots of vintage appeal. I really love the colors.

I'm also madly in love with any tentacle earrings. And there are plenty to choose from on etsy. Check out these by cashewandalmonds. They are so awesome! If you are stretching your ears they are amazing! Also for those of you who have average sized ear holes, there's these ones by OctopusMe. They are wicked awesome!! Also OctopusMe has many other fantastic things that are all made from REAL, yeah that's right REAL octopus!! 0.0 It's really awesome,it's all cast in silver, really neat. All amazing, I love octopi so this shop is one of my favorites.

And these little neck warmers by Etnyk are so adorable and they are all soft and cuddly you can't help but love 'em!

And on the subject of neck warming devices, this is sooooo awesome! Its like a chain, but knitted, way too awesome. It's by FiBreRomance. Also this bonfire scarf. Too cool! It looks like your neck is on fire. It's made by minedalgic.

Thanks for looking!!
~Courtney

Arts In The Park and Etsy

2009-05-10T19:03:00.004-04:00

So I haven't posted in a while because I was busy with Arts in The Park (an art show for artists to sell their wares in the park of my town), and didn't have the time to blog!

It was over all a good expeirence, although I didn't sell much, but I put alot of effert into the items I made. Although with the things I didn't sell I started up my Etsy Shop!!!! I already made a sell! (even if it was just my aunt!☺)

I sold this bag:

Just from the front ^

The inside/lining

Button detail^

This bag was made from a burnt orange colored corduroy skirt and some Garfield sheets. I really liked this one, and my dad says that it was one of his favorites as well.

At some point I would like to make a tutorial for a lined bag, I will have to take a break from sewing for a while though!

Thanks for looking!

~Courtney

Scrunchie Tutorial

2009-04-25T09:35:00.009-04:00

Scrunchies are a good way to use up old scraps

Scrunchie Tutorial

Materials you'll be needin'

A Pony Tail Holder

Scrap fabric

A sewing machine or needle and thread

1. First get out your scrap fabric:

2. Cut a strip (or strips depending on many you want to make) that are 8 inches by 4 inches, like so:

3. Fold those strips in half long wise, good side together (the side you want your scrunchie to be inside) and make a seem along the longer side, I usually make a double seem just to make sure its nice and strong.

4. Here's where we're gonna flip the fabric right side out. Take a safety pin and pin it to one side of the tube you've just created, make sure to only pin one layer of the fabric.

5. Take the pin and push it back through the fabric tube you have created, and pull it all the way through until it comes out the other end. Pull until all the fabric is right side out. This will give you a very neat looking tube.

Finished Tube completely right side out ^

6. Now take you pony tail holder and cute it in half along the seem(cut out the metal if there is any)

7. Pin one side of the cut pony tail holder to on end of the tube and put one safety pin on the other end of the pony tail holder so it looks like this:

8. Push the end of the pony tail holder not connected to the scrunchie case through the case to the other side and pin the two ends together so they don't go back through; and hand sew the two ends together tightly.

9. Now carefully hand sew the two ends of the scrunchie together overlapping one side over the other so that you have a neat seam and your done!!

Hope my instructions were clear!!

~Courtney

P.S. I weren't sure how to spell scrunchie because I never need to spell it, but I tried my best and I'm just assuming that's how it's spelled, so if it's not sorry!!

Juice Carton bag

2009-04-24T14:44:00.004-04:00

I saw this amazing bag in Threadbanger, and awesomely enough, she made a tutorial!!

http://clothwithpegs.blogspot.com/2009/04/juice-y-couture-handbag.html

Definitely check it out!!

~Courtney

Messenger Bags

2009-04-22T13:01:00.010-04:00

So messenger bags are one of my favorite things to make, they are fairly easy and totally useful(to know how useful here's a history of messenger bags).

Today I made made one out of an old pair of blue jeans and fully lined it with rainbow sheets. It's my favorite project to-date, I'm so proud of it! (His name is charlie :) )

From the front ^

From the side^ (the other side has a camouflage panel)

Very brightly colored rainbow lining^

Pocket sewn into the lining^

The strap is the hem of the sheet sewn into a strip of denim.

Messenger Bag Tutorials

So I pretty much make my own pattern as I go every time I make a messenger bag, but i know not everyone knows the basic messenger bag shape, size and how to put it all together. So here's five different tutorials for five different messenger bags:

Here's how to make a duct tape messenger bag.

Here's how to make a very nice lined messenger bag.

A messenger bag out of fused plastic bags (and how to fuse the plastic bags!)

A reversible messenger bag.

A little kids messenger bag.

And just so you know, I did not make any of these tutorials nor do I take any credit for them, I'm just showing them to you.

Hopefully I helped!

~Courtney

Ahh, I love the smell of Mod-Podge in the morning!!!

2009-04-21T10:30:00.013-04:00

Last night I made some magazine beads using old magazines and mod-podge. They are really easy and fun to make, so I made a quick little tutorial for them, so here ya be!

Magazine Beads

What you'll need:

A magazine with pages the colors you want

Mod-Podge

Toothpicks

A Paint brush

Step 1. Cut your magazine pages into triangles, like so:

Step 2. Lay a toothpick on the wide end of the triangle, and make sure you have the colorful side(the side you want to beads to be) face down.

Step 3. Brush some mod-podge onto the paper and start rolling the paper tightly around the toothpick.

Step 4. When you get to the end of the paper, brush mod-podge over the whole bead and wait a minute or two for it to dry a little bit and them carefully slide the bead off of the toothpick.

Step 5. Let them dry for half an hour then add another coat of mod-podge to add extra shine a durability. And that's it!! They should look something like this:

Thanks for looking!!

~Courtney :)

P.S. Please excuse the bad pictures, my photography and my camera are terrible.

First Post and an introduction :)

2009-04-20T16:46:00.007-04:00

So I thought it would be fun to join in on the world of blogging, so here I am!

Let me introduce myself, my name is Courtney and I loooooove to sew and make things. I spend most of my free time creating. I want to inspire other people to start doin-it-themselves, and recycling things, it's really fun! I like to make my own clothing (although I will admit I also really like shopping, so I don't make it all, just some) and I really like to make my own accessories and jewelry, almost all of my jewelry is handmade by myself, or someone on Etsy, and mostly recycled.

At first I couldn't think of anything people would be interesting in reading about that I could have to say, and then I realised, I spend almost all of my time crafting, sewing, knitting, drawing, and doing art of every sort and thought people may like to know how to do some of the things I find so much fun.

I'll be showing some awesome links to some of the best Do-it-yourself sites, amazing tutorials, making my own tutorials, and showing some of my projects, so hopefully, I will be bale to help and inspire some of the crafter/sewers out there!

Awesome noteworthy link:

My all time favorite DIY site, ThreadBanger. It's an amazing website. There are weekly shows with tutorials on how make tons of DIY clothing, and fashion. They almost always recycle and there projects are mostly easy and always easy to follow.

The forums on ThreadBanger are amazing, people make such amazing projects and wonderful tutorials. It's very inspiring to look through and see all the awesome things people make.

Hopefully someone will eventually stumble across my blog and read it!!

~Courtney